Mars City Shadowrun

Zero ZOOOOOOOONE!

Technomancers vs. MCT, Part 2

The runners, having trashed the first MCT lab, realize that MCT will need more technomaner experimental subjects for whatever facility they are transferring to. They decide to watch some local z-zone techno tribes and see if anyone gets grabbed. Sure enough, some local-looking thugs show up and snatch a few. The team traces them back to a coffin hotel on the outskirts of Amsterdam, where they see another team also dumping some bodies. Later in the day, a more pro-seeming group comes and collects all the techno’s. Saul follows them astrally while TY tails from a distance, using the blimp to spot. They end up in an old industrial park, now a barrens, about an hour out of town. They see the new group load the techno’s into what looks like an old toy factory.

The building seems to have pretty high security, although it seems pretty tech-heavy, from what they can see. They ID it as possibly being one of MCT’s feared “Zero Zones”, the supposedly impregnable design they use for certain ultra high-security areas. They decide to take out the visible drones from a vantage across the street, and then approach while summoned spirits trash anything that tries to attack them from the building, and Saul and LS break down magical barriers and launch area spells. The building is a seemingly unpopulated wirless dead zone, so presumably witnesses will be few or non-existent, and backup will be slow to arrive.

They gain entry, with Zuberi shaping materials out of their way left and right, managing to avoid a series of devious traps that a less wary group might have triggered. Zuberi is injured and partially blinded by some sort of chemical spray, but other than that the team makes it to the building’s door unharmed, having taken out a number of security drones, 2 mages, and some sensors. Netcat and Puck report that they have come under vicious matrix assault from some deranged seeming personae, and that they will hold them off but that the team may need to disable all their wireless if it gets any worse.

Zuberi warps them into the building, and controls air to filter away some gas attacks, and then surprises the onsite security personnel by attacking through a wall instead of coming through the door. Zuberi and TY are nearly killed by assault rifle fire, but the team manages to kill the security and the scientists who survived the initial spell assault on the building. They find the kidnapped techno’s and free them, telling them to wait til they can return- it seems they arrived just in time, as the scientists had begun executing the subjects that seem to have been there longer.

They head for the basement, where the main servers seem to be, and disable their wireless after warnings from Puck and NC. Zuberi and TY are once again heavily injured by some monstrous full-body cyborgs, who lack heads and moan almost indecipherably through chest mounted speakers: “iiimmmm sooorry” and “kiiillll meeeee” and such. It is near pitch black, with only a red alarm light illuminating what seems to be a grim surgical suite, and some more cyborgs in vats, which NC and Puck say they are attempting to keep from opening. Once again, it is distressing to the team to find that although these cyborgs have very obviously lost a huge amount of essence, they are still able to use their techno abilities. The team finishes them off, and kills the ones still in the vats, before proceeding. LS turns his wireless back on to document the scene, and is quickly hacked, losing some programs and a SIN before NC is able to shut it down.

They open the door to the server room, launch in a HE grenade, and close it, having caught only a quick glimpse of a middle-aged woman frantically typing and manipulating ARO windows. They enter the room to find her dead, and the equipment heavily damaged, although it seems she had access to a satellite uplink. NC emp’s the room, and thermites all the equipment in the building to make sure it stays dead, and the team leaves, quickly, to get Zuberi and others to the hospital before they flatline from overusing stimpatches to stay in the fight. TY races back to Amsterdam, and they arrive just in time. Zuberi’s sight is returned to him, although the hopsital staff is curious as to how he encountered the rare venom that caused it. NC hacks the hospital records to get them a steep discount and obscure their ID’s, and they part ways, after she gives them the SINs/info she had offered in trade for their help. Puck says he is back off to Geneva to look further into the possible return of Pax and the Discordians.

TY receives a call from the Doctor Faustus Society, telling him that they know he and the others (who they ID by name, although everyone except Saul were using fake SINs) stole the Phaistos Disc, and they are demanding info on the disc and the other artifacts in exchange for not going to Interpol/cops/etc. LS hears from The Order of St George, who tell him they are teaming up with the Sons of Siegfried (another anti-dragon order), as well as some pro-human extremist/terrorist groups such as Humains and Alamos 20,000, to put the hurt on dragonkind for their assaults on humanity. Specifically, they will be targeting the Destroyer Sirrurg, and Alamais, who is currently using the metahuman denizens of the feral sprawl of GeMiTo as game in a hunting preserve for him and his pro-dragon extremist allies. As the team is currently in Europe, they will be raiding one of Alamais’ layers, in the Apenine Mountains. The Order requires the team to bring them everything they recover from the layer, from which they will be paid a percentage, in nuyen. The Order has also called in some favors to get the team some limited air support, in the form of a friendly military chopper, although the team has the option to assault via mountaineering on foot or a HALO jump as well. The helicopter will be used for extraction regardless. They are told to complete the job within the week, to minimize the risk of Alamais or one of his allies visiting the hoard- months of careful observation and planning are on the line, and this will be a glorious blow against the dragons (as well as a powerful recuiting tool) if the team suceeds.